- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Starter kit: KC rides rotation back into contention
- Updated: August 22, 2016
It’s not just that the Kansas City Royals bullpen may again be the best in baseball. Been there, done that.
Nor is it that the Royals are playing the kind of take-your-breath-away defense that helped get them to the World Series the last two seasons. That, too, the Royals have done before.
And it’s not just that they’ve won eight in a row and 13 of 15 to sprint back into contention. In the last two years, they’ve been baseball’s gold standard for winning.
(Since July 22, 2014, the Royals are 222-159, including the postseason. That’s 22 more wins than any other American League club, 10 more than any National League team.)
This time, the Royals have something they didn’t have the last two seasons. That would be — for the moment, at least — the AL’s best starting rotation.
Kansas City’s starters are 10-1 with a 2.53 ERA during the turnaround. Only the Cubs have been better.
And an ace has emerged.
Left-hander Danny Duffy is a homegrown No. 1 starter who has come up with a devastating curveball to go with a 95-mph fastball.
He has won 10 straight decisions after allowing one earned run in 6 2/3 innings of a 2-1 victory over the Twins on Sunday.
He worked out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the second inning and extended his record to 11-1 with a 2.66 ERA in a late, emphatic run at the AL Cy Young Award.
This surge wasn’t what was predicted for the Royals when they were 51-58 on Aug. 5 and 11 games behind the Indians in the AL Central.
The AL Wild Card race didn’t offer a lot of hope either. At the time, the Royals were 9 1/2 games out and had six teams to pass to get the second berth.
We patted them on the back, told them they’d done themselves proud by winning back-to-back AL championships and the World Series last fall.
This season of injuries and inconsistency reminded the world how difficult winning is and how extraordinary the Royals’ accomplishment had been.
What the Royals have done since then speaks volumes about the …
continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com
